Ride-on vehicles for children have become increasingly popular due in part to the desire of children to drive self-propelled vehicles resembling full-size vehicles. Such ride-on vehicles, or ride-ons, are typically propelled by battery-powered motors and generally include scaled-down features of full-size vehicles.
One challenge in designing reduced-scale vehicles is to make the vehicle resemble a full-size vehicle as closely as possible, while still providing a vehicle that is safe for use by children. When a ride-on is designed to resemble a four-wheeled vehicle, such as a car or truck, the corresponding ride-on tends to also have four wheels. When a ride-on is designed to resemble a motorcycle, however, a balance must be reached between safety and the accuracy of the reproduction. Certainly the most accurate reproduction is for the ride-on to only have two wheels. However, children may not have the size, strength or coordination to balance a two wheeled ride-on, especially when propelled by the ride-on's motor. Adding additional wheels to the ride-on detracts from the accuracy of the reproduction, and thus may reduce the child's desire for the ride-on. Therefore, there is a desire to produce a ride-on that resembles a motorcycle, yet still has the stability provided by a ride-on having at least three points of support.
The invented ride-on includes a drive assembly with a battery-powered motor, and a frame that is adapted to support a child and resemble a full-size motorcycle. The ride-on further includes a forward wheel, plural driven wheels and a rear free-floating wheel, which is unbiased and travels within a defined range of positions with respect to the ride-on's frame as external forces are imparted to the wheel.